523 Madison St.
Remsen, Iowa 51050
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Jarrod Schott, math teacher at RSM, uses hands-on activities to help students transition from high school to post-secondary math in his Statistics class.
In this activity, students were asked to collect their own data for three different scenarios. One scenario required students to throw a penny at a target and measure the distance from the target. In the second scenario, students rolled a die and record the numbers that were rolled. In the last scenario, students used a stopwatch and tried to stop it at exactly 5 seconds. They then recorded their times. Each of these scenarios was meant to help students better understand shapes of distributions and density charts.
“I recently went to a math workshop hosted by Dordt University regarding helping students to transition from high school math to be successful in post-secondary math. The skills that were emphasized that colleges are looking for are critical thinking, perseverance in solving problems, the ability to write about math, and the ability for students to collect their own data and analyze the data. These are all skills that these students are using daily in Statistics class,” says Mr. Schott.
This activity is an example of the Experience First, Formalize Later (EFFL) teaching model where students work collaboratively to think, discuss and construct their own understanding of new content before a teacher helps students arrive at the formal definition and formulas.* In this example, RSM statistics students work in a group activity and then draw some conclusions (experience first). When they reunite as a class, Schott clarifies the lesson and summarizes what they learned (formalize later).
*credit to https://blog.mathmedic.com/post/experience-first-formalize-later-effl for EFFL definition.